Though UCLA’s offense put up its lowest point total since
the first week of the season, Maurice Drew rebounded for one of his
better performances of the season. The sophomore tailback, who
created astronomically high expectations in the beginning of the
year, had gone three straight games without gaining over 100 yards
rushing. However, he was consistently able to get into the open
field against the Cardinal, picking up 105 yards on just 12
carries, 98 of which came in the second half. “Everyone has
seen him make those moves, jumping over guys and spinning,”
quarterback Drew Olson said. “He’s a fun guy to watch
play, and anytime he touches the ball it seems like he can
go.” Drew scored two touchdowns, one off a 3-yard reception
early in the fourth quarter that put the game away. But the
touchdown that has people talking came on an electrifying 68-yard
punt return where he shuffled through would-be tacklers after the
catch, made a nice cutback in Cardinal territory and then outran
the pursuing special teams unit. “Everyone saw me to the left
and started running to the left, and all the blockers pushed
everyone to the left, so I just went around right,” Drew
said. The touchdown gave Drew, who has been sharing punt-returning
duties with Jarrad Page, his first career score off a punt. It also
marked his tenth touchdown of over 40 yards. Drew’s two
touchdowns overshadowed fellow tailback Manual White, who also had
a strong day. White had a quiet 87 yards on 12 carries and gave the
Bruins their first touchdown of the day with a 2-yard run up the
middle. The pair’s effort reaffirmed the strength of
UCLA’s rushing attack, which amassed 246 yards and averaged
6.8 yards a carry.
BRAGG WATCH: In his second game back from a
separated shoulder that had held him out of three games, wideout
Craig Bragg seemed like he was back in the swing of things. The
senior standout had a team-high 48 receiving yards on five
receptions. “It feels pretty good, especially off the injury,
that the coaches have a lot of confidence in me to go out there and
make plays,” Bragg said. All five catches were on short
throws, as the Bruins didn’t really throw the deep ball much
during the game. “We had that planned going into the
game,” Bragg said. “Their corners like to sit back, so
we had to attack underneath.” Bragg is now just six
receptions shy of breaking the all-time UCLA record held by Kevin
Jordan with 179.
DRAGOVIC CONTRIBUTES: Freshman defensive end
Nikola Dragovic recorded the first sack of his career, dropping
Stanford’s Trent Edwards for a loss of 8 yards on a third
down play late in the third quarter. Dragovic, who had missed the
past couple of weeks because of a high ankle sprain, came back
unexpectedly early this week. “When I got hurt, I was upset
because all year I wanted to do something for this team, so coming
back today made playing even better,” he said.
NOTES: Junior linebacker Spencer Havner
recorded a game-high 16 tackles, increasing his Pac-10 lead …
Junior linebacker Justin London, the Bruins’ leading
returning tackler, recorded a season-high 10 tackles.